GP wore wig and fake beard in 'nurse disguise' to 'kill mother’s partner with mock Covid jab laced with poison'
3 October 2024, 14:51 | Updated: 3 October 2024, 15:13
A GP accused of trying to murder his mother's long-term partner posed as a nurse and disguised himself in a wig, fake beard and moustache, a court has heard.
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Thomas Kwan, 53, a partner at a surgery in Sunderland, allegedly hatched a scheme to murder Patrick O'Hara who was set to inherit Kwan's mother's estate, poisoning him with a fake Covid-19 jab, Newcastle Crown Court heard.
Police searched his home to find a selfie that Kwan had taken of himself clad in a wig, fake beard and moustache.
They also uncovered a fake ID badge in the name of a fake nurse Raj Patel.
Kwan denies attempted murder and an alternative charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent but has admitted administering a poison to Mr O’Hara.
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Peter Makepeace KC, prosecuting, said: "This ID was plainly prepared in the event Mr O'Hara asked for identification on the day he was poisoned."
CCTV footage also showed Kwan arriving at a Premier Inn in Newcastle, appearing to don a long coat, flat cap, surgical gloves and wearing a medical mask and tinted glasses
After checking in under a fake name on January 22, he left the hotel and walked across the city to his mother's house where he administered the injection to Mr O'Hara.
The 71-year-old then became gravely ill with flesh-eating condition necrotising fasciitis, Mr Makepeace said. He survived emergency surgery.
Kwan has also been accused of hoarding ingredients at his home to make ricin and other toxins.
Mr Makepeace described the trial as "truth" that is "stranger than fiction".
He said Kwan used his "encyclopaedic knowledge of, and research into, poisons to carry out his plan" and sought to "disguise himself as a community nurse".
Mr Makepeace said the plan involved Kwan forging NHS documentation, disguising himself, using false number plates and booking in to a hotel using a false name.
He said: “It was an audacious plan, it was a plan to murder a man in plain sight, to murder a man right in front of his own mother’s eyes, that man’s life partner.”
Kwan’s mother, Jenny Leung, named Mr O’Hara in her will to the effect that he could stay in her house in St Thomas Street, Newcastle, should she die before her partner.
That decision led to her having a strained relationship with her son, so much so that the police were called when Kwan burst into her home uninvited in November 2022, the court was told.
The prosecution described him as “money-obsessed” and said he even installed spyware on his mother’s laptop so he could monitor her finances.
A year later, Kwan, who is married with a son, faked a letter from the NHS on his home computer to Mr O’Hara “with chilling authenticity”, Mr Makepeace said.
Claiming to be from a community nurse called Raj Patel, he offered Mr O’Hara a home visit, following up that letter in January.
Mr Makepeace said: “As, I suspect, would any of us, Mr O’Hara fell for it hook, line and sinker, he had not the slightest suspicion that this was anything other than a genuine NHS community care initiative which he warmly welcomed and was grateful for."
Having stayed in a city centre Premier Inn under a false name, Kwan went to his mother’s house in a long coat, flat cap, surgical gloves and wearing a medical mask and tinted glasses, the court heard.
Posing as a nurse, Kwan spent 45 minutes at the house, carrying out thorough medical tests on Mr O’Hara and even checked his unsuspecting mother’s blood pressure when she asked him to.
Kwan, in what the court heard was broken English with an Asian accent, told Mr O’Hara he needed a Covid booster, even though he had only had one three months ago.
Mr Makepeace said: “As most of us do, Mr O’Hara averted his eyes as the nurse proceeded to dispense an injection into his left upper arm. Immediately Mr O’Hara felt a terrible pain and jumped back.
"He shouted 'bloody hell' and explained the immediate and intense pain, but the nurse reassured him it was not an uncommon bad reaction and it was nothing to be concerned about.”
Kwan swiftly packed his things and left in a hurry, the court heard.
When Ms Leung commented that the man was the same height as her son, Mr O’Hara "began to suspect something was very wrong" and went into the street to see if he could catch the nurse, but he had gone.
In pain, Mr O’Hara contacted his own GP and found from a local hospital that the NHS organisation which had written to him did not exist.
He then went to the nearby Accident and Emergency unit at the Royal Victoria Infirmary where staff initially believed his injuries were due to a "clumsy" Covid vaccine, Mr Makepeace said.
He was sent home with antibiotics and painkillers but returned the next day when his arm had blistered and was "seriously discoloured", the court heard.
Mr Makepeace said: "At the hospital the doctors were baffled as to what the cause of the deteriorating injury was.“Blood tests were taken, and analysis carried out but no meaningful results obtained.
"By now it was clear to the medical professionals the infection was spreading and the damage increasing in seriousness and magnitude. It was clear surgical intervention would be necessary."
Mr O’Hara was diagnosed with necrotising fasciitis, a rare and life-threatening, flesh-eating disease, that forced him to have diseased flesh cut away from his arm. He remained in intensive care for a prolonged period of weeks.
The trial continues.
